Nothing More Dangerous

 

Nothing More Dangerous by Allen Eskens

Boady Sanden #1

Mystery

2019

Finished on January 21, 2024

Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

In a small town where loyalty to family and to “your people” carries the weight of a sacred oath, defying those unspoken rules can be a deadly proposition.

After fifteen years of growing up in the Ozark hills with his widowed mother, high-school freshman Boady Sanden is beyond ready to move on. He dreams of glass towers and cityscapes, driven by his desire to be anywhere other than Jessup, Missouri. The new kid at St. Ignatius High School, if he isn’t being pushed around, he is being completely ignored. Even his beloved woods, his playground as a child and his sanctuary as he grew older, seem to be closing in on him, suffocating him.

Then Thomas Elgin moves in across the road, and Boady’s life begins to twist and turn. Coming to know the Elgins--a black family settling into a community where notions of “us” and “them” carry the weight of history--forces Boady to rethink his understanding of the world he’s taken for granted. Secrets hidden in plain sight begin to unfold: the mother who wraps herself in the loss of her husband, the neighbor who carries the wounds of a mysterious past that he holds close, the quiet boss who is fighting his own hidden battle.

But the biggest secret of all is the disappearance of Lida Poe, the African-American woman who keeps the books at the local plastics factory. Word has it that Ms. Poe left town, along with a hundred thousand dollars of company money. Although Boady has never met the missing woman, he discovers that the threads of her life are woven into the deepest fabric of his world.

As the mystery of her fate plays out, Boady begins to see the stark lines of race and class that both bind and divide this small town, and he is forced to choose sides.

After reading two of Allen Eskens' books back-to-back last month, I was eager to try another and picked up a copy of Nothing More Dangerous at the library. Shelved in the mystery section, I was surprised that this prequel to the Boady Sanden series reads more like a coming-of-age tale rather than a whodunnit. At least, initially. The introductory chapters failed to pull me in as quickly as either Saving Emma or Forsaken Country, and it wasn't until well over a hundred pages when the story propelled Boady into a full-fledged mystery, that I became hooked. The foreshadowing had me on the edge of my seat, with bullying, race, and prejudice at front and center. Eskens' characters are well-drawn and I was rooting for Boady and Thomas as I read the final chapters. Exciting stuff! Recommend.